OTTAWA - The much anticipated report of a federal panel that is to recommend ways to improve health care across Canada will be released in the coming weeks.
The Advisory Panel on Health Care Innovation was struck last June by Health Minister Rona Ambrose to make recommendations on reducing health spending and improving the quality and accessibility of care.
Its job was to seek out the five most promising areas of innovation in Canada and internationally, and recommend five ways for the federal government to support that innovation.
The recent federal budget said the panel's recommendations and final report were due by the end of May, but a spokeswoman for the panel said Sunday its final report has been drafted and is currently being reviewed and edited.
Spokeswoman Leslie Meerburg says the report will be released in the coming weeks.
The director of public issues for the Canadian Cancer Society, Gabriel Miller, says anything that delays the report's release will not bode well for placing health care on the public agenda for the expected Oct. 19 federal election.
